Motive in Yale slaying may never be known

The Annie Le Case

Colleen Long and Pat Eaton-Robb, Associated Press

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, September 19, 2009

Photo: Douglas Healey, Getty Images

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NEW HAVEN, CT - SEPTEMBER 17: Raymond Clark III (C) is lead into the room as Assistant Public Defender Joseph E. Lopez (R) looks on at his arraignment at the New Haven Superior Court after earlier this morning when he was arrested at a Super 8 Motel in connection with the murder of Yale University graduate student Annie Le on September 17, 2009 in New Haven, Connecticut. Le, whose body was found behind a wall on September 13, in New Haven, Connecticut, had been missing since September 8, after being seen in the morning on surveillance videos entering but not leaving the laboratory building. Raymond Clark III, a lab technician at the Yale laboratory building, was taken into custody from the motel after not resisting arrest by the police as a suspect in the murder of Annie Le. less

NEW HAVEN, CT - SEPTEMBER 17: Raymond Clark III (C) is lead into the room as Assistant Public Defender Joseph E. Lopez (R) looks on at his arraignment at the New Haven Superior Court after earlier this morning ... more

Photo: Douglas Healey, Getty Images

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This undated photo released by New Haven Police Dept., shows Yale graduate student Annie Le who disappeared on Sept. 8, 2009. Raymond Clark III, 24, a Yale lab technician was arrested Thursday Sept. 17, 2009 and charged with murdering the graduate student in the research building where they both worked. less

Police may never know the motive for the killing of a Yale University graduate student whose body was found hidden behind a wall on what should have been her wedding day, the police chief said Friday.

"The only person who knows the motive is the suspect," Chief James Lewis said in a telephone interview. "It's true in many cases. You never know absolutely unless the person confesses, and in this case it's too early to tell."

Raymond Clark III, a technician in the lab where Annie Le conducted research, was arrested Thursday, a day after authorities took DNA samples from him to compare with evidence from the crime scene. His bond was set at $3 million, and he did not enter a plea.

A law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Thursday that co-workers called Clark a "control freak" who was territorial about the mice whose cages he cleaned. Authorities are investigating whether that attitude might have set off a clash between Clark and Le, 24, a pharmacology student who grew up near Placerville (El Dorado County).

Clark tried to hide evidence even as investigators worked in the basement lab around him, authorities said, then coolly played a softball game on the day Le's body was found stuffed inside a nearby wall.

An investigator observed Clark trying to hide cleaning equipment that contained blood splatters as teams probed the disappearance of Le, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation who spoke to the Hartford Courant.

But despite Clark's efforts, investigators found the DNA of both suspect and victim in the ceiling and in the wall recess where Le's body was hidden, the official told the paper.

Le's body was recovered Sunday, the day she was to get married on New York's Long Island.

Also that day, Clark played shortstop in a softball playoff game for his team, the New Haven Wild Hogs, an opposing player said. And he played under the gaze of undercover police officers who had been trailing him 24 hours a day for several days before his arrest.

Prosecutors may face difficult questions in Clark's trial about why they didn't restrict access to the lab after Le was reported missing, legal experts said. Le disappeared on a Tuesday, and authorities didn't close the lab until the weekend.

"If a jury is looking for something to grab onto, then this could be something for them to grab onto," said Hugh Keefe, a top defense attorney.

Clark is jailed in Suffield, about 20 miles north of Hartford. His next scheduled court date is Oct. 6.

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